The American fraudster received a real term for creating a virtual financial pyramid of bitcoins

    On September 21, the organizer of the first US Bitcoin financial pyramid pleaded guilty. Texas resident Trendon Shavers faces up to three years in prison. He is not going to appeal the court verdict. Bitcoin Savings & Trust, a Shaver-organized company, worked according to the so-called “Ponzi scheme” : funds of new pyramid participants were used for interest payments to old investors.

    Shivers promised investors 7% per week or 3641% per year. They just needed to invest their money in securities denominated in virtual currency. Thus, the “Bitcoin Mavrodi” attracted 764 thousand bitcoins worth more than $ 4.5 million. He used the funds that remained with the great combinator from payments to old investors very “original”: he bought a used BMW M5 car, a diner in Las Vegas, and also visited a casino and spa.

    Bitcoin Savings & Trust operated from September 2011 to September 2012 and caused losses to 48 investors. At the peak of the pyramid, Shivers controlled about 7% of the publicly available bitcoins, writes Slon, citing Reuters.

    September 17, Megamind wrotethat one more buyer of currency failed to earn on bitcoins. The head of Sberbank German Gref reported that he had acquired cryptocurrency (this is not about the pyramid). The financier suffered losses associated with the devaluation: Bitcoin fell more than the ruble.

    Currency is gaining popularity more and more. It is accepted as payment by some taxi companies, pizzerias, clothing stores, not to mention freelancers. Now Bitcoins is accepted by one of the largest banks in the UK - Barclays . True, so far only as donations to charitable organizations.

    Bitcoin currency appeared in 2009. It is the most common among virtual currencies. New bitcoins are created by continuously computing the hash function. Bitcoin issuance is limited by software - more than 21 million of them cannot be issued.

    The payment system Qiwi are now engaged in the development bitrubley - cryptocurrency whose functioning principle is similar to Bitcoin. To launch the domestic cryptocurrency, the company will need several hundred million ordinary rubles. Bitrubles will begin to work in 2016.

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